Energy Sectors Underperformed The Broad Markets. Unless the index in question has exposure to the refining patch, energy looked pretty horrible again last week despite only small moves to the downside for oil and gas. My sense is that this is largely due to end of quarter last minute selling. If you look around, anything [...]

Sentiment Watch: Shade of red known as "de-leveraging". The energy groups for the last couple of days have looked like they want to pick themselves up off the floor but, at the end of the day, have been unable to shake off the swooning broader market. We’ve gone from window-dressing-end-of-quarter concerns about having "energy" names [...]

 
The government takes over AIG and the world becomes a rosier place…at least temporarily. Concerns still linger about the other large financial houses and until those concerns are addressed look for only brief breaks in the clouds as the eye of this financial storm passes overhead. Natural gas looks to be putting in a bottom [...]

Just a couple of quick notes this weekend:
1) Refining margins jumped last week as Hurricane Ike approached the Gulf Coast. I’d expect some reversal there later today as trading opens early and damage/flooding at refineries preliminarily looks less than expected.  Shell and VLO are reporting no significant structural damage yet discovered while XOM is still [...]

Holdings Watch: Slow, cautious week in trading and you know things are dire when my profitable trades center around entries into the refiners and calls on (DUG), the double short energy ETF.

DUG Sept $38 Calls sold up 40% on 9/3

DUG Sept $40 Calls sold up 31% on 9/5
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